


Water Wings

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Derek Hale is the best dad, Fluff, M/M, Single dad Derek, Swimming, Writer!Derek, derek is still a werewolf, godfather/babysitter!Stiles, screen writer!Stiles, writing convention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 21:25:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4115449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>UNBEATA'd</p><p>"Fetch Daddy! Fetch!" Julia laughed adorably as she picked up the last diving stick and tossed it as far as she could...</p><p>Straight into the back of the head of the guy from earlier, incidentally</p><p>She had quite the arm for a five-year-old, werewolf or not...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Water Wings

**Author's Note:**

> UNBETA'd
> 
> Another cross-post from DeviantART
> 
> Because single!dad!Derek is one of my favorite things in the entire world

"Are you SURE you don't want to come in?" Derek asked slowly as he stared at the little girl in front of him

"Um..." she wimpered, looking down at the water and shaking her head quickly

"Do you want to use the stairs?" he offered, looking over to where the stairs for the pool were

The little girl nodded quickly and he held out his hand, backing up step by step as she toddled over to the stairs and stepped into the water, shreiking at the chill

"Cold isn't it?" he chuckled

The girl shook her head quickly, even though she was already shivering

"N-N-Nope, werewolves don't get cold," she insisted

"Julia you know that isn't true, werewolves can get cold," he insisted, sitting on the top step were she was standing and watching her climb down to the second step

"You aren't cold," she pointed out

"That's because I've been in the water for a few minutes, I'm used to it," he shrugged back

Just before his daughter could rebuff his statement an exclaimation of "HOLY SHI-.. TZU... THAT'S COLD!" came from the other end of the pool, drawing the attention of both Derek and Julia and seeing thin, slightly scrawny man flailing around in animated motion in the water as he shivered and leaned against the edge

"Aren't all indoor pools supposed to be heated?" he groaned

"Not all of them apparently," Derek offered from the other side of the pool

The man cursed under his breath a few times, probbably under the impression that they couldn't hear him, but werewolves could hear everything...

Derek just sighed quietly, it was exactly BECAUSE werewolves could hear everything that he had long since given up on sheilding his five-year-old from profanity....

The guy just gave them a small wave and lowered a decorative baby floatie into the water with a young child looking to be no older than a year old in it

The baby seemed immediately comfortable and splashed the guy and Derek faintly heard him grunt a "Traitor.." at the child

He considered going over to say hi, it wasn't often he saw other dads having quality time with their kids (especially without bemoaning it) but his lack of social skills ended up keeping him on the other side of the pool

"You want to try actually swimming instead of floating?" he offered, watching the little brunette next to him as she floated aimlessly in the water, letting the water wings and floating ring do all the work

"I guess so..." she said hesitantly

"We don't have to," Derek shrugged

Personally, he rather liked swimming, something about it was very lively, it was quiet and relaxing- tuning out the rest of the world- that was nearly impossible for him to have, yet at the same time it was also a very harsh, bitter reality that if one allowed themselves to get too lost there would be consequences

It toed the line between relaxing and hypervigalence and something about that line appealed greatly to Derek

"Um... can we play Star?" she asked

Derek smiled and nodded, setting Julia on the middle step and walking to the center of the pool, trying to ignore the tiny aches on the bottom of his feet from the roughness of the pool bottom continously scraping against his skin

"Do you want to go first?" he asked with a smile

One of the perks to being a werewolf, unlike most people who play games across any sort of distance they didn't have to shout anything at eachother

She thought for a moment, nodding and grinning

"Iiiiiit's... 2014, um... it's a kid's movie... aaaanddddd... we have it on DVD," she said

"Is it animated?" he asked

Julia nodded quickly and he smirked

He had a feeling he already knew wich movie it was- parents just KNOW these things- but he wanted to humor her

"Did we see it at the movies or just at home?"

"Just at home,"

".. Did it have any famous people in it?"

"Nuh-uh,"

"Is it Monster High?"

Her face wrinkled- he was obviously right

"WICH Monster High?" she smirked

Derek was always quick to defend his parenting choices, but not always his parenting skills, he knew there was always room for improvement and nothing was perfect, but one thing he DID admittedly excel at was paying attention to his daughter's favorite things

Yes, he could recite Disney songs on command

Yes, he knew the name (and collection title!) of EVERY Monster High (and Ever After High) doll that she owned

Yes, he could very easily tell you the differences in each and every Magic Treehouse arc if you cared to ask, thank you

This was really a peice of cake

"Was it Frights, Cameras, Action?" he guessed

"How did you know that?!" Julia huffed

"Because you like it better than Freaky Fusion," he smirked back

She pouted, but started swimming towards him

Derek, ofcourse, did not swim- he walked, because if he swam he'd be at the steps before he could even get his head under water

"You go!" Julia said with a bright smile as she got to the other side of the pool

"Ok... 2015, animated, not on DVD yet,"

They spent the next hour playing "Star" before Julia inevitably ran out of energy and had to go have a popsicle break by the side of the pool, wich finally gave Derek the oppertunity to actually SWIM

"Try not to throw too many in the deep end," Derek instructed as he watched Julia empty the big bucket of diving sticks onto the space beside her, throwing them one by one into the pool as spread out as she could

She nodded but Derek watched several zing past him into the deepest part of the pool, he knew if he confronted her she'd say it was an accident though so he decided to keep quiet this time, hoping she'd grow out of the "Test Daddy's limits" phase

He had a bad feeling that she wouldn't

"Fetch Daddy! Fetch!" Julia laughed adorably as she picked up the last diving stick and tossed it as far as she could...

Straight into the back of the head of the guy from earlier, incidentally

She had quite the arm for a five-year-old, werewolf or not...

"Ouch!" the guy hissed, rubbing the back of his head

Julia's mouth was open, wincing immediately

"Ooops...."

Derek sighed, giving her the "hold on" signal and quickly walking over to make sure the poor guy was alright

"Are you ok? I'm sorry, my daughter has a .. very... bad aim," he noted

"No no it's fine, I've been hit with worse," he said with a small smile, rubbing the back of his head

"I'll have her apolo-"

"Don't worry about it man, life's too short, I mean I get you're doing the 'make your mistakes right' type of parenting wich, cool, good for you for sure, but tell her I let her off with a warning ok?" he smiled

Derek just swallowed and nodded awkwardly, glancing down at the small child in the water ring in front of the guy

"Just wait until your's gets that age, there'll be no releif from the flying objects in your household," he sighed

"Huh? OH! No no, um.. no, Lily isn't mine, she's my god-daughter, I'm here watching her my best-freind-turned-step-brother wile he and his wife are visiting a freind, Scott went on this big thing about 'Lily loves water so take her to the pool wile we're gone' and completely forgot to mention what I'm supposed to DO with her in the pool considering she can barely sit up straight much less SWIM, so... being hit in the back of the head, actually most exciting thing that's happened to me in the last hour," he replied with a small smile

"O-Oh.. I'm sorry... didn't mean to imply-"

"You're fine, it's like the thirteenth time TODAY, she looks nothing like me though so I don't get it,"

Derek shrugged, looking down at the baby as she splashed around playfully in the water

"I think it's the way you act, you ACT like a parent, so people read you that way, reminds me of when Julia was that age, ofcourse I looked so young most people just thought I was her brother," he mused

"Yeah but that had to have been a COMPLIMENT, people think I look like I'm seventeen and give me judgey eyes whenever I've got Lily myself, like ... first of all, way to not even think that I might be a babysitter, and second of all, you might want to check my age before you get all judgey- not that anyone has any right to get judgey, ofcourse, but you know, it gets annoying, I'm twenty-three, not a high-schooler," he huffed, grinning as he bent down and gently wiggled Lily's hands

"You're twenty-three?" Derek asked in surprise

"Yep, you?"

"Twenty-five,"

"WOAH, could've fooled me, I thought you were like twenty-nine maybe,"

He shrugged

"It's the facial hair, whenever I'm clean shaven people think I'm nineteen, I mostly keep it so they'll leave me alone, well... and Julia says I remind of her a walrus so there's that,"

"A WALRUS? Oh man... oh God dude.... if you want to get scarred for LIFE one night when you have nothing better to do and the tiny one is asleep, have you heard of that movie 'Tusk' about the guy that gets turned into a walrus? Oh my God I'm not joking it's the most disturbing thing I've EVER seen, and I YAWN through SAW, it's TERRIBLE, 10/10 would NEVER reccomend," he laughed

"So why are you reccomending it?" Derek snickered

"Because now I can't think about walruses without picturing it and Scott- who, poor soul, was dumb enough to watch it with me- isn't around and I have to share my pain," he laughed

"Well you realize that now I'm probbably going to have to watch it because I want to see what could make someone who so CLEARLY prides himself on the inability to be disturbed actually feel disturbed don't you?"

"Oh man... oh... please do not ruin yourself like that, forget I said anything, I'll show you the picture on my phone of the last scene so your morbid curiosity will be satisfied- wich is really what I should've done in the FIRST place instead of paying $4.95 to watch that thing on TV and have nightmares- and just.. NEVER watch it," he laughed, gently taking Lily and her floating device out of the pool and walking out as well

Derek took the moment to look over at Julia, who was finishing her popsicle and giving him an affirmative nod and a thumb's up

Sometimes he was slightly worried about his daughter's keen intuition....

"Um, hey dude? Have you seen Lily's left wing?" the guy asked as he looked around the floor for the yellow plastic device

Derek blinked, shaking his head and looking back at his daughter

"Jules! Have you seen a stray water wing?" he called over to her

Julia nodded and pointed at the deep end of the pool

Because ofcourse it had floated over there

"Ohhh crap... crap crap crap..." the guy hissed, setting Lily- now wrapped in a towel- in the baby carrier on the ground

"What's wrong?" Derek asked curiously

"Um, nothing, just... not all that great with deep water... traumatic high school experience and stuff... but I bet I can fish it out with- where'd you go?" he asked suddenly, looking down to find that Derek was already half-way across the pool

Derek didn't care for deep water either

He didn't have any distinguishable PROBLEM with it

He just preferred to be in more of a moderate water level, high enough to actually swim, but low enough that he could stand on the bottom if he really needed to and not drown

His older sister liked to tease that it was because she had dropped him in the lake when he was a baby and their mom had to fish him out but even though the story was true he failed to believe it

When he was a kid he used to love deep water, the deeper the better

Then some time after puberty kicked in, like with so many things, he started feeling differently about it

His younger sister always thought it was because werewolves weren't good swimmers but Derek was actually quite exceptional considering he had never had a single lesson more than the basic ones he had been given when he was seven

"I've got it!" Derek shouted as he emerged with the water wing, tossing it onto the shore before swimming back to the shallow end

"Oh wow! Thanks, you didn't have to do that," Lily's godfather smiled brightly as he started to deflate the little yellow thing

"No problem, I have to go over there to get the diving sticks anyway," he shrugged

"Wow, a great father and a great swimmer- and he knows Monster High and Disney as well as I do! Your wife is one lucky woman," the guy hummed

"I'm single, actually," Derek corrected

"Oh... falling out?" he guessed

"Not.. not exactly no, Julia is technically my cousin, but.. circumstances and I ended up adopting her.." he said quickly

"Ohhhhh..." the guy hummed, nodding slowly

There was really no tactfull way of saying "I found her in the woods when she was a few days old and took her in and by the time my sister offered to take her I was already too attached"

Julia knew she was a little bit different than the other kids in the Hale pack, but Derek never told her why and he intends to keep it that way

As far as she knew her "real family" had been part of the pack but something happened that she wouldn't understand until she was older

Derek still had no idea what to tell her the next day that she would ask

"I um, I'm sorry for picking at that scab..."

"You're fine, it's .. I go through it often enough," he replied

"Right... so what are you in town for? Where are you from? I just.. I know you've gotta get back to father-daughter time and I probbably should head back to the room and get the chlorine off of Lily before it ferments so..."

"Beacon Hills, I'm here for a writer's convention," he replied

"No way!! Dude, I'M from Beacon Hills, also her for the writer's convention, I'm Stiles, what's your name?" he smiled, holding his hand out

"Derek Hale, it's nice to meet you Stiles," he said calmly

"DEREK HALE? As in THE Derek Hale? The multi-talented writing MACHINE Derek Hale that published like sixteen books in five years? Oh my GOD I love your stuff! I'm here for your pannel!" he said excitedly

"That... wow, that's very nice of you," he smiled

"Pshh, no, your BOOKS are nice of YOU, like those are little blessings unto the world, oh my God," he said dramatically

"Are you here just as a guest?" Derek asked

"Oh! Um, no not technically, I'm a screenwriter, so far I've just been doing little touch-ups and editing and stuff for the studio I work at but I'm getting my first screen play adapted next fall so I'm here for that.. can't tell you what it's called yet but it's the three P.M. tommorrow in Ballroom A," he said quickly

"I'll be there," Derek said quickly

"Seriously?" Stiles smiled brightly

"Sure, I'd love to know what your screen play is about,"

Stiles was so giddy he was almost jumping

"What about Julia though?"

"She likes pannels, she won't mind sitting through it- especially if I bribe her, unless it's something graphi-"

"No, nope, totally kid freindly, promise," he smiled

"Then we'll be there," he smiled

Stiles smiled back, setting the baby carrier down and leaning down

"We MUST get together when we go back to Beacon Hills," he hummed

Derek paused, blinking and looking over his shoulder at Julia as she started to crawl back into the water again

"I mean, definately around your schedule, and it doesn't have to be a-"

"Coffee date?" Derek offered

"I just... my sisters have been wanting a girls day with Julia for weeks... so.... next week?"

Stiles grinned excitedly

"I'll give you my info at your pannel, or if something happens and I can't get to you then we'll meet here tommorrow after the pannel ok?"

"Deal," Derek agreed

Stiles grinned, leaning down and giving him a chaste kiss before heading off in a hurry

"Oh! And by the way, if you're looking to be part of a bigger pack my buddy Scott is looking to merge! He's starting to lose time for Alpha-ing so... you could totally co-Alpha with him I bet," he grinned

Derek stared at him in surprise, how on earth...?

"How did you-?"

"You learn to tell after a wile, besides no one can talk that quietly half way across a pool from eachother," he snickered, heading for the door and waving again

"So that's me, I'm Stiles, just your freindly neighborhood Spark... um... see you around!" he said quickly, racing out of there and leaving Derek and Julia as the only ones currently at the pool

"Daddy?"

Derek heard, looking down at Julia and raising his eyebrows

"Go for it," she smirked

Derek just blushed and went off to get the diving sticks so she wouldn't notice


End file.
